My father-in-law (who’s 89 and still lives alone) rang me one Saturday recently to tell me that he’d spied a number of little ginger kittens in his neighbour’s backyard, hiding amongst some grass in an old pile of wood. His neighbour’s backyard is a bit of a wasteland – it could be home to any manner of plants, animals, insects or other beasts. It certainly has a number of elderly derelict cars who have seen better days, and has piles of old wood, old car tyres and assorted junk. So the fact that my father in law even saw the kittens was surprising – they were pretty well camouflaged amongst the debris.

I went over in search of a possible photo opportunity, and to see if the neighbours were aware that a group of kittens had made themselves at home in their backyard. They weren’t aware. I found the mother cat and her 5 ginger and white kittens (oh so cute!) and was then able to pass on the information to another neighbour who was the original ginger cat’s owner and was concerned for the welfare of their cat and her kittens.

As you can see, the mother cat had her hands full (so to speak) but I also managed to capture the photo at the top which I thought was a lovely shot of a sleeping cat – and given her 5 little furballs, I’m sure she had every reason to get a little well deserved shut eye.

So just a reminder:

“Your calm mind is the ultimate weapon against your challenges. So relax.”

For the past week, in my spare time I have been stripping wallpaper off the walls of a spare room which I normally use for painting, sewing and creative activities. It is at the back of the house and gets great afternoon sun. With the wallpaper stripped, I moved on to washing the ceiling, and then sanding the scotia (cornice) around the ceiling. I have washed the window ledges and window frames, and only just started sanding them.

My plan is to repaint the ceiling, scotia and skirting, window frames and ledges, and to wallpaper the walls. While I feel like I’ve made a good start, each time I go into that room I can see that I have a long way to go.

So far, I have been blessed with a constant companion – thus the photo above. That’s her resting on one of the old curtains I’m using as a drop sheet. Whenever I have work to do – she’s there, ready and waiting to give me company and to oversee my progress. I believe the part of the process she enjoys the most are the times when I stop and rest in a big easy chair and she’ll come over and jump up into my lap and lie down, even if I only sit there for a few minutes.

She has certainly been, thus far, my precious companion, and a constant friend. For these things I am grateful!

Yesterday (Sunday) was the most beautiful day. It’s still spring and has been quite wet but yesterday felt like the beginning of summer. I took the dog for a walk through our usual summer track through the forest. It’s been several months since I’ve walked this track -it gets pretty muddy and slippery and is steep in parts so not somewhere I walk in the wetter months. Because it had been a while since I’d walked it, I was blown away by how green it was, by the beauty and majesty, the peace and serenity, as if I was seeing it all for the first time (again!). Dog got a little frustrated as I kept stopping to take photos but she was grateful for the exercise and so excited to be back in what I’m sure she considers to be ‘her backyard’.

The feelings from Saturday (Abandoned Mine & Introspection) have dissipated and it was good to sit and cry and release the pent up emotion. Both the emotion and the sense of feeling lost have passed.

While I’ve shown you photos before from this track, these are some I took yesterday. I just hope you’ll get a sense of the absolute beauty of this place – just down the road from my home.

For this walk, for the opportunity to be out there enjoying it, for the sunshine, for my favourite canine companion, and for the beauty I witnessed, I am grateful.